"Observations: Spring MMXIX"

"Observations: Spring MMXIX"


back deck newly awash in the Texas saffron of pecan pollen

squirrels, many strangely rufous as of late,
seemingly more numerous than ever

wood sorrel thrives in clover-like ubiquity

house sparrows, worn out, take to the shade
of that bush with the admirable sense of self-restraint

antique roses strain under their own weight

bougainvillea runs slow riot, battling rogue
(as if there were any other kind) morning glory

butchered mulberry plots a triumphant return

white-winged doves, all bulk and alarm,
try to bring down the feeder to feast at will

blue jays bathe joyously in their sun-hot concrete pool

Oito Elegias Chinesas de Camilo Pessanha, V: 徐禎卿的"春思"

First of all, I have to apologize for misspelling the pinyin of the poet's name in my last post. I didn't misspell it in the tags, or anywhere but the first sentence, but that's bad enough. 抱歉！ I updated it with the correct spelling on April 20.

This is another poem by Xu Zhenqing, who wrote the last one we read, as well as the next one. In terms of explanatory notes, I don't have much to offer, and neither does Pessanha, who supplies all of two. It's a pretty straightforward poem, though Pessanha and I read it differently. For starters, he uses 相 as an adverb "indicating transitivity and unidirectionality of following verb, usu. replacing direct object" (per the entry for 相 in Kroll's A Student's Dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese). This makes perfect sense, but I've left my initial translation, which uses 相 in the reciprocal sense, as an example of how flexible readings of poems like this can be. In one of his two notes Pessanha explains, via a Tang dynasty poem, how 沾衣 can be taken to mean "soaking one's clothes in tears." Once again, he shows that he knows this material quite well, furthering undermining the argument that Pessanha was actually ignorant of Chinese.

In the second line he refers to rain and trees that aren't explicitly mentioned. This is fine, since Chinese poetry leaves a lot to the visual imagination, but it seems unnecessary to me. The second couplet is noteworthy since a) Pessanha employs the linked-clause pattern typical to classical Chinese, and b) he makes a reference to the King of Chu's palace being in ruins. The first of these is perfectly orthodox, and reminds me yet again that I need to stop overlooking this basic pattern of usage (though I like my reading anyway); the second can be seen as extraneous or, if we take into account Pessanha's title, a detail that lends to the poem being a fantasia.

This is a point where he and I differ strongly—well, as strongly as one can differ with a dead man about a mostly moribund literary language. I'm not familiar with 思 being used as "fantasy" or "dream" or anything similar, though it's certainly not impossible. By doing so, Pessanha shifts the poem's subject matter into an imaginary mode, whereas my reading of 思 as "contemplating" makes the poem more observational or meditative. I could argue for either reading since I think they're both valid, but I tend to like stripped-down interpretations. Besides, Pessanha's version suits the poetic sensibilities demonstrated in his own work, which makes this and the other elegias chinesas worth studying.

That's it for now, y'all, so I'll bid you 再見, adeus, and catch you again soon. Enjoy the poetry!

史大偉


***

春思
徐禎卿

渺渺春江空落暉
行人相顧欲沾衣
楚王宮外千條柳
不遣飛花送客歸

***

Fantasia da Primavera
Hsu-Chên-Ch'ing 

Cai o sol, no imenso horizonte, em flor, do Kiang.
Pára o viandante a olhar. A chuva, que do arvoredo ainda goteja,
     vai-lhe repassando a túnica...
Oh! se dos mil chorões, à volta das ruínas do palácio real de Ch'u,
As flores soltas me fizessem cortejo, à despedida, no regresso à pátria!

***

Contemplating Spring
Xu Zhenqing

The river in springtime, distant and dim as the light fails
Travelers glance at one another, their clothes nearly soaked through
A thousand willows stand outside the King of Chu's palace
But spare no blossoms to see off this homeward-bound traveler

"Na cadeia os bandidos presos!" por Camilo Pessanha

Bom dia, folks. Here we have another Camilo Pessanha poem, which has no official title and thus is known by its first line. "Na cadeia os bandidos presos!" appeared in the first edition of Clepsydra, not one of the later ones that included additional poems. I think there's an argument to be made that what didn't make it into Clepsydra doesn't mean Pessanha didn't want it published, but I can't say for sure without doing more research.

The more time I spend with Pessanha's poems, it feels increasingly necessary to push beyond straightforward translations and toward looser, more expansive interpretations. This doesn't mean that Pessanha's structure and sonorousness get left behind (which they may already have been, if my translation sucked), but rather that I want to present them in a way better suited to English expression, and that reflects more of my reading of the poem.

One step in this direction is finding a way to deal with much of his punctuation, which feels unhelpfully old-fashioned. I won't go so far as to say it's useless, but even in Portuguese, I often find it little more than a distraction, a sort of non-verbal flourish that doesn't add much to the experience of reading the poem, whether silently or aloud. Anyway, that's a subject I can explore at another time, whereupon I'm sure I'll think differently after giving the matter more thought.

The following poem is interesting in light of Pessanha's career as a lawyer and judge. I don't know when it was written—I probably have the date around here somewhere, if it exists—but it really doesn't matter, since Pessanha the poet and Pessanha the jurist coexisted for about the same amount of time. Here he seems much more sympathetic to the imprisoned than to the authorities, which echoes the disdain he received from some of his colonial contemporaries for being too easy on Chinese defendants in Macau's courts, or something along those lines. Whatever the case, it's clear that having much sympathy for non-whites, much less those accused of crimes, was frowned upon in Pessanha's day.


I'm not sure what exactly he's referencing when he mentions the "Campo florido das Saudades"/"Flowery field of longing", assuming he's even referencing anything. That line, as well as the "Estranha taça de venenos"/"Strange cup of poisons" one, is a jarring, intriguing interruption into the poem's observations of self and other, and I find myself wondering about both of them quite a bit.

As always, this is a work in progress. Enjoy!

Abraço,
D.A.S.

***

"Na cadeia os bandidos presos!"
Camilo Pessanha


Na cadeia os bandidos presos!
O seu ar de contemplativos!
Que é das feras de olhos acesos?!
Pobres dos seus olhos cativos.

Passeiam mudos entre as grades,
Parecem peixes num aquário.
— Campo florido das Saudades,
Porque rebentas tumultuário?

Serenos... Serenos... Serenos...
Trouxe-os algemados a escolta.
— Estranha taça de venenos
Meu coração sempre em revolta.

Coração, quietinho... quietinho...
Porque te insurges e blasfemas?
Pschiu... Não batas... Devagarinho...
Olha os soldados, as algemas!


***

"The criminals in prison—"
Camilo Pessanha

The criminals in prison—
They have the air of contemplatives!
Where are the beasts with burning eyes?
Poor wretches, with their captive stares.

Roaming mutely behind the bars,
They look like fish in a tank.
— Flowery field of longing,
Why are you in an uproar?

Serene... serene... serene...
The guard brought them in in shackles.
— Strange cup of poisons
My heart always in revolt.

Heart, be quiet... be quiet...
Why do you rise up and blaspheme?
Hush... don't beat... slow down...
Watch for the soldiers, the shackles!